Qualla: Al-Balad, Jeddah

Al-Balad, Jeddah: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tahir mq, CC BY-SA 4.0. The wooden latticework catches the Red Sea light before the air ever touches it. These are the roshan windows of old Jeddah - screens carved from teak and imported hardwoods that let women watch the street without being seen, that break the afternoon glare into shadow-lace on the floors inside. Behind them rise the coral-stone houses of Al-Balad, some more than 30 meters tall, balanced on foundations built from blocks quarried out of the reef itself. This is the town that Jeddah was before it was the city Jeddah has become, and Arabic has a word for its simple relationship to the metropolis surrounding it: Al-Balad, the town.

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Image: Tahir mq | CC BY-SA 4.0

Al-Balad, Jeddah: The Gate to Mecca

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Outofthewaves, CC BY-SA 4.0. Al-Balad was founded in the 7th century as the port that received pilgrims bound for Mecca - a role it still plays, though the modern terminal is elsewhere now. For more than a thousand years, every Muslim arriving by sea to perform Hajj passed through here first. The defensive w...

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Image: Outofthewaves | CC BY-SA 4.0

Al-Balad, Jeddah: Four Neighborhoods, Each a Direction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KELANTAN JOTTINGS, CC BY 2.0. The town divides into quarters named like a compass of influences. Al-Mazloum, in the northeast, takes its name from Abdulkarim al-Barzanji, a scholar killed by the Ottoman government - al-Mazloum meaning the wronged. Al-Sham, in the north, points toward the Levant. Al-Yemen, in ...

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Image: KELANTAN JOTTINGS | CC BY 2.0

Al-Balad, Jeddah: The Language of Wood and Coral

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Jpatokal, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Hejazi architecture that defines Al-Balad solved real problems with real materials. Coral blocks from the Red Sea reef cooled interiors naturally - porous, mineral, forgiving. Imported hardwoods from India and East Africa became the frames of doors and windows, because the sc...

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Image: User:Jpatokal | CC BY-SA 4.0

Al-Balad, Jeddah: A Cemetery Hidden Behind Trees

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ammar shaker 18:24, 9 July 2007 (UTC), Public domain. On King Fahd Branch Road stands a walled compound shaded by tall trees. The Non-Muslim Cemetery, formerly called the Christian Cemetery, is tended by the Western consulates of Jeddah. It was vandalized after the Battle of Jeddah in 1925, when Ibn Saud's forces took the port from ...

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Image: Ammar shaker 18:24, 9 July 2007 (UTC) | Public domain

Al-Balad, Jeddah: The Rescue

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tahir mq, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the 2000s, Al-Balad was in real danger. Buildings were collapsing. Preservation moved slowly. Then, in May 2019, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a multi-billion dollar restoration of 56 historical buildings, with a first stage worth $13.3 million. In October 2023, t...

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Image: Tahir mq | CC BY-SA 4.0